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No Knead Bread Questions

Questions about your no knead bread or rolls? These notes should help…

My dough didn’t rise.

No knead dough doesn’t rise like standard yeast breads, it only puffs up and gets bubbly. It will be a little bigger after the resting time but don’t look for a much larger volume.

Your yeast may not be fresh and should not be used past the expiration date. Even with a good expiration date, yeast has a short shelf life once a package is opened. Even with the small packets, once it’s opened, yeast should be tightly sealed and kept in the freezer, not refrigerated.

Your water may have been the wrong temperature. For the faster method, hot tap water is usually around 125 to 130°F. Anything hotter than that is too hot. And boiling water is definitely out. For the overnight method, cold to room temperature water works.

You changed the recipe. It’s best to follow the recipe exactly for the first time. That way you know it works. Don’t change the recipe the first time, paying attention to every detail. You can get creative later on.

My dough was too dry.

You did not aerate your flour before measuring. Flour always settles in the bag or container and must be aerated before measuring; otherwise, you will be using too much flour. To aerate flour, using a large spoon or spatula, stir the flour around to incorporate some air.

You measured the flour incorrectly. To measure flour, use a flat-topped measuring cup, gently spoon the aerated flour into the cup until it’s mounded above the rim and level off the excess with the back of a knife. Do not tap the cup or the container of flour.

You changed the recipe or used whole wheat flour.

My dough was too runny.

You used too much liquid or not enough flour. Use a cup specific for measuring liquids, have it on a flat surface and view it at eye level to make sure your liquid is at the correct line.

You sifted the flour before measuring, which would cause you to use less flour than required. Never sift flour before measuring unless specified in the recipe.

You changed the recipe.

My bread wasn’t cooked inside.

Your oven (and pot) were not preheated long enough. Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven has reached 450°F. It can take over half an hour.

You sliced it too soon. After bread is removed from the oven, it will continue to cook inside. It’s best to let it cool completely before slicing (I know it’s hard to wait!)

My bottom crust was too hard.

Your pot was too close to the heat. Try raising the oven rack so the bottom is not as close to the heat.

Your oven may be hotter than you think. Use an oven thermometer to assure your oven is the proper temperature.

Try a slightly lower temperature by preheating to 450°F but lowering the temperature to 425°F to bake.

If using a black cast iron pot, try another one that is not black.

Do not bake any longer than indicated.

How do I aerate flour?

Flour must be aerated before measuring because it often settles in the bag or container making it heavy and compact, resulting in too much flour being measured. Aerating basically means fluffing it up and is not the same as sifting. Flour should not be sifted before measuring unless the recipe states to do so. Otherwise sifting will result in too little flour being measured.If you dip into flour without aerating, you will be getting too much flour and your dough will be too dry. To aerate flour you simply stir it around with a spoon before measuring. To measure, be sure to use a flat-topped dry measuring cup. You can see how I aerate flour in my Quick and Easy Chocolate Cake video at the one minute mark: https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/quick-and-easy-chocolate-cake/

After aerating, there are two ways to measure the flour: 1) Scoop & Level – Gently scoop the flour up with a spoon and sprinkle it into your measuring cup until it’s mounded above the rim. Do not tap the cup or the container of flour. Finally, level off the excess flour with the back of a knife. 2) Dip & Level – Gently dip your measuring cup into the flour until it’s mounded above the rim and level off the excess flour with the back of a knife. Sources vary but in my kitchen, a cup of flour weighs between 4 1/2 and 5 ounces.

Can I make it with Gluten-Free flour?

Well…. you can make it with gluten free flour but you may not like it. I tried it and the loaf was smaller and more dense and chewy, without the traditional big holes and it didn’t taste anything like the original recipe. I tried it once but nobody wanted to eat it.

Can I make it with Sourdough Starter?

I’m sorry I have no experience with sourdough starter.

Don’t you need sugar to feed the yeast?

No. You do not need sugar to activate the yeast. This is a half-true old wives tale left over from when yeast wasn’t preserved as well as it is today.

Doesn’t hot water kill the yeast?

No. Hot water does not kill yeast. Today’s yeast is more sturdy and accommodating than years ago and can tolerate water or liquid up to 130°F. The killing point for yeast is 140°F. (average tap water comes out at about 120-125°F – my tap water is 127°F)

Parchment paper: Paper stuck? Don’t have parchment paper?

If your parchment paper stuck it’s from using an inferior brand. Reynolds brand will never stick. If you can not get Reynolds brand you need something to lift the dough and place it in the Dutch oven. You can try using a well floured kitchen towel to transfer the dough, letting the dough roll off the towel into the hot pot. Do not leave the towel in the pot, only use it as a means of lifting the dough. Do NOT use wax paper in a hot oven. It will melt onto the bread and it will be ruined. I don’t use a towel because my dough always sticks to the towel. Parchment paper makes the job super easy but inferior papers can stick. I always use Reynolds brand – it never sticks.

I don’t have a Dutch oven.

I have only made this bread in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven (Le Creuset) so I can not recommend something I have not tried. But I have researched online and other people claim to have success using:

a glass pyrex dish with a lid

a stainless steel pot with a lid

a clay baker

a springform pan with an aluminum foil top and

a pizza stone with a stainless steel bowl as a cover

several people posted here that they used a black cast iron pot with a lid

a roasting pan with a tightly sealed foil heavy duty top

a heavy soup pot with a lid

With a little research, you may be able to find more options and you can also look through the comments below the recipe for other ideas. Keep in mind that any lid must be tight fitting because you need to create steam inside the pot and the lid should have an oven-proof handle (not plastic). Your pot will need to hold at least 3 quarts but 5 to 6 quarts is most common. Or… You can make my No Knead Ciabatta Bread or No Dutch Oven Bread – they both bake on a pan, no Dutch oven needed.Click herefor the recipes.

A Final Note: If you have followed my recipe exactly with no changes at all and it doesn’t look right before baking, don’t make adjustments to try to “fix” it. Trust the recipe, don’t change anything and continue as directed. You may be surprised that it turns out after all.

Dear Jenny Thank you so much for your amazing No knead bread recipe, came out sooo good, the only problem I had, that my La Creuset duch oven got burned on the outside, can you suggest some cleaners for it? I used Bar Keepers Friend, on the lid I was able to clean most of it off, but on the side of mine red colored pot , I wasn’t able to clean it off, Thank you Agnes

Oh my this is the most delicious bread. I’ve made it four times now using my husband’s grandmother’s cast iron dutch oven and it’s been perfect. Would I wreck it if I added some cooked oatmeal or 7-grain cereal? Herbs? Sunflower seeds? olives or sun-dried tomatoes? cheese? If these kinds of things might work, at what point would i add them – in the i nitial three hours or when I’m scraping the dough around

I make cranberry/walnut no knead bread. When it has cooled completely, I slice it and freeze the slices in a zip lock bag. When I want to serve I just take out one slice, microwave for 23 seconds on the setting for bread, then toast in my toaster for about a min or so. Tastes like fresh made. Husband likes peanut butter and homemade freezer raspberry on it. Have been doing this for several years. Note, I use a black cast iron pot with lid and only use this pot for bread. I use the reynolds parchment paper as she directs.

I use an aluminum baking sheet and it works great. You do not need a pot with sides. Jim Leahy the guy who came up with the recipe recommends using whatever you have.Read the NYT comments on the recipe link, people are using all kinds of baking containers and pans.

I just stumbled onto your recipe for Faster No Knead Bread. I have been wanting to buy a dutch oven. What size ideally do you use? They are expensive so i can only buy one for now. Cant wait to try th is recipe. I LOVE good bread (not store bought bread). skip the chocolate, give me bread!!!

I think you want it as small as possible without confining the bread. I started with a 6 quart for no knead, but then bought a 4 quart, and am getting better oven spring. If there’s too much room inside, it reduces the effect of the steam.

Under the 2-Hour Fastest No Knead Bread recipe, Teresa responded to Lili’s Dec. 26th posting that Food Network makes a very reasonable Dutch oven rated up to 500°F. I think they sell it at Kohl’s but you’ll need to check.

followed exactly.Used a pyrex (white bowl with glass lid) that can go to 500F. bread was delicious, Better half finished it this morning. Did not use convection. Parts of interior seemed underdone but toasting made the difference, However, outside crust was very hard. Since I used pyrex, should I bake for less time or at 425F? Would using convection make a difference? After second bake, thermometer read 210F.

UPDATE to my yesterday comment. So I was so disgusted that I couldn’t make this simple batch of bread I did some research and then found a video that potentially shows my error. I dipped my measuring cup into the container of flour. Apparently, this is a no-no (I did aerate the flour first). Jenny’s troubleshooting talks to scooping out the flour into the measuring cup but I missed that (Sorry Jenny). Here’s the link if you’re interested; https://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/video/measuring-flour

Don’t know why I keep getting sucked into these “It’s so easy, a monkey could do it”….. start tossing the bananas my way. I guess I really wanted to make the bread and believed it could be so easy. I read several comments of failures but chose to follow the advise of “keep going” if you have a problem. Well, I measured everything very carefully after making sure my ingredients were fresh (even went out and bought new yeast). After finally stopping the mixing of the flour, yeast, salt and water because it was still a bit runny, I “kept going” and put it in the bowl for 3 plus hours to rise. It looked great until I rolled it out on my counter top….perhaps I should say it poured out with little difficulty. I never could get it to come together. I finally gave up and threw it away as it would not stay in a shape and I had added a ton of extra flour. Think long and hard before you try this recipe and be prepared for failure. I should add that I watched the video three times before starting and stopped at each step along the way. As mentioned before, I measured carefully. The only possible thing I might say that could help is that I measured the flour in a dry cup and I measured the water in a Pyrex glass measuring cup. This seemed perfectly sensible to me but perhaps I should have not used the Pyrex? Very disappointing.

I know what cups to use for dry and what cups to use for liquids I followed all the steps exact and mine was exactly the same I ended up adding more flour it still was runny I couldn’t even get it into a ball lbut I’m going to bake it anyway and see what happens.

I tried this recipe & the results were pretty good. I have a cast iron Dutch oven ( all black) and the Dutch oven smoked a lot during the heating stage. My bread had a nice smoky flavor to it. Any advice so this won’t happen next time?

The bread turned out fantastic! So easy I am afraid I may overindulge 🙂 My advice is to use a kitchen scale to measure the flour– I used 360 grams of all purpose flour and the results were perfect. Thanks Jenny!

I tried this and did exactly as you said. There is not enough liquid for 3 cups of flour and definitely Did not get bubbly! It would be nice if you would tell us in your video about aerating before I went to all this work only to through it in the garbage. I was so disappointed in this simple, forgiving bread and I have baked bread all my life. Anne

I feel terrible that youtube does not allow us to edit videos but I did post two notations on the video that read: “Aerate flour before measuring.” One comes up at 0:28 and another one at 0:32. Maybe you missed them but if you have baked bread all your life you probably already know about aerating so I doubt if that was the problem. This recipe has worked for thousands of cooks exactly as written and I did not fake the video. I think if you check my FAQs and try it again, exactly as written, it will work. I have made it exactly this way hundreds of times.

I followed your you tube as it was. Then i watched several more times to be certain. I did not know what aereate was so i looked it up. the bread came out fantastic. Folks take your time and re-watch over and over.

My bread definitely was not fluffy OR bubbly. In fact the mix of ingredients was not complete; I mixed it well and it resulted in globs. Perhaps this is lack of aeration, and I am uncertain about how that’s accomplished, I guess. I saw your note not to sift, but….what?

Was watching other cooking related videos on theYouTubes and stumbled across this recipe!

One question for you – you say in your video that you use 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, however, your written recipe calls for 2 teaspoons. Can you please clarify which it is before I make this bread (and I cannot wait to do so!!!)

I too was wondering about this. So, I followed the recipe as written and have made 4 loaves so far, using only 1/4 tsp yeast. I have varied the flour with whole wheat and white, making each loaf different. All 4 loaves have been perfect. Awesome!

I think you are looking at two different recipes. The “Faster No Knead Bread,” which has the video, calls for 1/4 teaspoon of yeast and the “2-Hour Fastest No Knead Bread” (no video) calls for 2 teaspoons.

Hi Jenny, I’m sure glad I understood, from the beginning, that there are TWO recipe links under your YouTube video that are quite clear. One is according to the rising time in the YouTube and the other link is if you prefer a FASTER rise. DUH 🙄 Thank you!

Have made both versions of the bread a few times and it’s yummy….it’s also gone in about a day! We are at 6500 feet altitude and altho the bread is yummy…it doesn’t look like the pictures….it’s smaller and denser. What adjustments should I make for altitude?

I made my very first bread in my life with your recipe and it WORKS!!!!!! It was a little dense and because I added a little more water after noticing it was dry. Otherwise, it is crusty outside and soft inside…so yummy. I made it with my first Dutch oven Combekk that comes with thermometer!

I am so motivated that I am preparing to do a second one…without the extra water and see how it turns out.

Jenny I noticed that your dutch oven has a light interior. I have a Staub dutch oven with a black finish interior. Do you think I will need to decrease the oven temperature? Haven’t tried it yet, worried the bread will burn. Bernie

You could try proofing it in a smaller bowl but from my experience no matter what container I proof it in, it always bakes tall so make sure you don’t change the recipe in any way. And I use a similar dough in my pan pizza recipe.

Best bread ever, at my first try! Thank you!! My question now is, how do you store it after it has cool down to keep it crusty on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside? And, if freezing it, do you freeze the dough before the first rise or after? Or perhaps, freeze the bread after it’s baked? Thanks, can wait to make my own flavors of these amazing bread.

I have some sourdough starter sitting on my stove all the time and I feed it and keep it going (for years now!) but i’ve only used it once with this type of no knead recipe by some famous guy, but it took ALL DAY and multiple steps! I’ve not done it again. I want to do it YOUR WAY. Tell me how I can use your recipe but using my liquid sourdough. Thanks so much1

Yeast is what creates the homemade bread smell and salt it what gives it flavor. Which recipe did you make and what are the exact ingredients you used? If you can walk me through your specific ingredients and process, I will try to help. Please be as specific as you can.

Even though dough was sticky I just used my rubber spatula with good dusting of flour and sprayed water on dough and did 3 slashes with sharp kitchen shears just as I placed in covered pot. I had great crispy “ears” (top crust lifts where slashed) and beautiful “crumb”(holes).

Had just made a loaf of sourdough bread (No Knead Method) that took 12 hours with wait time. Watched your Faster No Knead Bread video for 3 hour bread then read your Fastest 2 hour method and wanted to do a comparison. Yes, I did alter since I only had 1/2 pkg. of Active Yeast so I additional added my super strong sourdough starter 1/2 cup with the 1/2 pkg. yeast and only used 1 1/4 cup hot water, 2 1/2 cups bread flour and 1/2 cup rye flour. My oven is old so I preheated to 550° and placed my cast iron skillet on low shelf with a 6 qt. tall pot with lid in it. Did follow the rest of your recipe instruction with parchment paper, “envelop folding” @ 12 times and resting then placing sourdough on parchment paper in pot and reducing oven temp. to 475° and baked with lid on in pot for 30 minutes. Took bread out of pot and paper and placed bread only on top oven shelf for 10 minutes to get darker crispy crust. Total SUCCESS! Bread is terrific and even more successful than even the 48 hour traditional or even 12 hour sourdough methods. Tooks photos of results of all 3 breads but unable to post here.

Jenny, your bread amazing, but some personal comments very shocking (about somebody not forgiving or porn like bread-that “you can watch it, but you can’t have it”!). Because, me and my grandchildren we like to watch together cooking video I want to be sure there is no any adult dirt around! Please, don’t brink your bitterness into our day!

It’s her site, and she can use her humor any way she likes. There are plenty of other pages that may be more family friendly if that’s what you want. I love Jenny the way she is and I think she is hilarious!

In my opinion, her jokes were very mild and not even a little bit offensive. She presents the recipe very well and makes me want to bake the bread. My advice to you, Tatyana, is find another baking site that you don’t find offensive to you or your grandchildren. There are many out there (though the recipes may not be quite as good) 🙂

How dare you. Who do you think you are? Live your life the way you want but dont try to push it on others. This woman is a darling! and that she took time out of her day to teach her recipe to us is a kindness. Shame on you for trying to put shame on her. This is why I am not a christian anymore. Holier than thou. You are not better than anyone. Your comment proves it. Amen?

Jenny, I sent a link for your No Knead Bread recipe to my daughter who has a Dutch Oven and loves to cook. My question is about the adorable black and white polka dot apron you are wearing in the video. I looked at the FAQ and didn’t see anything, I apologize if I just missed it. Please tell me about the apron, where you got it, if it is hand made is there a pattern available for it??? My grandson is engaged and I would love to make an apron like this for his fiance’. Thanks for your recipe and website with all the great recipes and any information you can give me about the apron.. Most appreciated, Sandra

I as so excited about your no kneed bread recipe, I went out and bought a cast iron dutch oven. Question? The instructions on the box said that a temperature of 375 degrees was the most for your oven using this dutch oven. Your recipe said 450 degrees. Can I cook the bread at this temperature? Maybe longer? Help.

I’ve got a batch of dough in the second rise, as I am writing; I am using a similar “Good Eats” recipe, but found yours in an attempt to remedy my problem: very sticky dough, almost a batter. The GE recipe calls for 17 oz flour and 12 oz of water; that’s a ratio of 1.42, flour to water; and as I said, it was more like a batter. I then did the same calculation for my bread machine recipe; its flour to water recipe is 1.73, and the dough is always perfect. So I did the same calculation for yours: 3 cups of flour is 14 oz; 1.5 cups of water is 12 oz; the flour to water ratio would be 1.1. That should be almost a soup! Where am I erring? Please forgive the mathematical approach–I’m a retired chemist and I weigh everything!

All I can say is the dough really should be pretty sticky and “stringy” and should not resemble a traditional loaf that you knead. This is a forgiving recipe so you could try adding (most of) the water slowly with just enough that it’s not too soupy for you. Even without a little less water, it will likely still turn out well in the end.

Thank you; I will try “creeping up” on the water till I get something workable. I admit I’m accustomed to a more traditional-looking dough ball; the one I tried today flattened out as it cooked–but it tastes great. Sort of like ciabatta, I’d say.

Hi and thank you for your wonderful bread recipes, My oven cannot go further than 400 degrees. Even to make it work better and not to start a smoke, (and it is clean), I would prefer to set it up at 390 at the most. Would that work for your awesome bread recipes? If yes, how long could I bake the bread for? thank you!

Full disclosure should have required that you give credit to Jim Leahy and Sullivan Street Bakery that first developed the recipe for no-knead bread and then gradually it came to be known throughout the U.S. Your faster method is interesting and I will try it, but I am disappointed that you didn’t give credit where credit is due.

For a good crust, make sure your oven is fully heated to 450 and also you can bake it longer after you remove the lid for as better crust. I store mine wrapped in foil but crusty breads never stay crusty for too long unless you re-crisp them in the oven before serving.

I would like to try this no knead recipe with a Pullman pan instead of a cast iron Dutch oven (did that and it came out great). I have seen recipes that involve a slow rise but I was wondering if I could use the quick method successfully.

Thanks for mentioning using an oven thermometer! I went and bought one. I set my oven to 450 to make the faster no knead bread. When the oven beeped to say it was up to temperature I checked thermometer and it said 375. It took another 20 minutes to get up to 425! When I made the banana muffins the temperature was 25 degrees less than my oven said. This explains so much about why I constantly find myself adding cooking time when I’m first trying a recipe (especially with meat). I am going to use my thermometer on a regular basis and adjust my temperature settings accordingly.